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Like a default setting, I fell back on that smile that set everyone else at ease and started for the door.“I’ll see you tomorrow… partner.Come on, Dudley.” He gave Boy one final lick and followed me out the door.
7
MAL
Sunlight – Hozier
Iwished I could say I’d dressed in the first shirt my hands had found, instead of changing three times this morning. I wished I could say I’d had a full night’s sleep, not the tossing and turning I did until even Boy had grown agitated. I wished I could say I wasn’t staring at the door right now.
But if I said any of those things, I’d be a damn liar.
Knee-deep in the vat, I relished the sound of metal cutting through grain, shoulders rolling as I transferred spades of chitted barley, sprouted and ready for germination, to a wheelbarrow.
Ewan had come in a few hours early this morning. Laying the grain was one of the few days a month when an extra pair of hands became so essential I allowed myself to pay him overtime.
I didn’t even pretend to listen as he jabbered on about some hiking trip he’d planned next weekend. “—we only have the two days, so won’t complete the full ninety-six miles, but I reckon we’ll get at least to Rannoch Moor—”
“That’s great, how about you start spreading.”
Untouched by the bite in my words, he gave a little two-fingered salute, finally lifting the rake he’d spent the majority of the morning leaning against.“Sure thing, bossman.”
I hopped over the lip, boots crunching on stray kernels as I wheeled the heavy barrel to the furthest corner and tipped the grain straight into a mound on the malting floor. Ewan got right to work, probably sensing I was pulled tighter than a rubber band. Even Boy had sunk down quietly beside the door, chewing dutifully on an old toy he usually wouldn’t spare a glance.
I repeated the process again, sweating as I put my back into it. I knew April hadn’t been serious about helping out. This job was tough… dirty. The princess would never lower herself to this kind of manual labour. But she could have had the decency to let me know instead of wasting my time.I’m relieved really, I told myself, grunting as grain hit the floor at Ewan’s feet again, raining down quicker than he could rake it. A woman like April had no business hanging around here. She was too sunny, smiled too much, laughed too freely. I supposed that was easy when everything went your way.
I’d loaded my fourth barrel when a commotion at the door jerked me to a stop. Boy’s tail wagged, nose snuffling through the small gap along the bottom.“No, Boy,” I whispered. He looked back at me over his shoulder, features flat in an expression of“oh I’m definitely gonna.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I warned, grasping for any shred of authority I had left.
He ignored me. Head tipped back and front paws beating at the wood, he howled a siren call that reverberated off the walls. Ewan dropped his rake with a clatter, hands shielding both his ears.“Bleeding hell, who’s out there?” He made a move to check.
“You stay here,” I said too quickly.“Keep working… I’ll only be a minute.” Refusing to be left behind, too, Boy barged around me, almost taking my legs out as the door cracked and he bounded onto the gravel.“Who isn’t trying to kill me this week?” I muttered, righting myself on the threshold.
His elated hops quickly slowed when his new best friends were nowhere to be seen. Then his ears pricked and he raced off toward the office, tail whipping at the closed door.“There’s no one in there, Boy!” I called, trailing after him.“The door’s locked.” His answering whine said otherwise.
Realisation was a cold splash of water.No, she wouldn’t.
Of course she would. And when I peered through the small hatch window, there she was, AprilbloodyMurphy, sitting at Kier’s desk chair, rifling through every single drawer of his ancient desk as though they belonged to her. I groped for my keys, flinging the door wide. She didn’t even glance up as it crashed against the brick.
Boy dove ahead of me, greeting Dudley with an excited whine.“How?” Ire practically oozed from my lips.
Her small hands clasped the arms of the chair as she spun to face me, like she sat on a throne rather than an office chair with shit lumbar support.“The window,” she stated.No way.The window was more than four feet off the ground, she could only be five herself.“It’s a lot lower on the outside,” she continued, reading exactly where my thoughts had gone.
“Because the entire lower floor is laid below ground level to aid temperature control.”
“The more you know, I guess.” Her head tipped as she leant back. The shorts had made a comeback, tiny little navy ones that offered a full view of strong calves and smooth pale thighs as she kicked one leg over the other. On her feet were open-toed sandals, tiny square toenails painted the same baby pink as her fingernails.
I looked away, taking in the mess on the desktop.“You sure have a thing for breaking and entering through windows.”
“Did you miss the part where we discussed how the distillery belongs to me?” I detected no malice in her voice, just harsh facts sugarcoated in her candy floss tone.
“You could have asked for the key.”
A deep red brow winged up, making her freckles dance across the bridge of her nose and cheekbones. Her nose was small, as straight as an arrow, ending in a delicate elfin tip. No hint of the slightly aquiline nose she’d been born with remained.“Would you have given it to me?”
Yes, if it meant you didn’t risk hurting yourself. I’m not a total bastard.What I actually said was,“Poking your nose around wasn’t part of our agreement.”
“But working together was.”
